A road safety expert has hit out at Angus Council after a driver lost a tyre when her car hit a “dangerous” pothole.
Mark Hooghiemstra, 60, was travelling from Brechin to Forfar on the B9134 on Saturday when a fellow road user hit a 5ft-long pothole with their car.
The former police officer, who investigates serious and fatal collisions across Scotland, stopped to help the woman – whose damaged vehicle had been left “undrivable”.
It comes just months after he warned that the number of potholes in Angus posed a “serious risk” of fatal incidents.
‘Angus road network littered with dangerous potholes’
Mark happened upon the incident just seconds after he narrowly missed the 11cm-deep pothole himself.
He said: “I came across one of the numerous dangerous potholes which litter the Angus road network.
“I was only able to avoid driving through it, and potentially damaging my car, by swerving into the opposing lane.
“Luckily, I was not driving fast and the oncoming driver had noticed my predicament.
“About a mile further up the road, there were three cars stopped and I presumed someone had not been so fortunate.”
He added: “I stopped my car and checked if everybody was OK and there were no injuries.
“The female driver told me that she had just driven through the same pothole, which had damaged her front nearside wheel and made the car undriveable.”
Mark says the incident serves as a reminder that potholes will “inevitably” result in serious or fatal accidents if Angus Council fails to take action.
Last month, a Craichie driver was forced to replace two tyres after his Mercedes hit a 7ft pothole on the B9128 in the county.
Permanent repair planned
A spokesperson for Angus Council said: “As part of our routine inspections the pothole in question was identified and recorded by our roads supervisor on April 11 and it was scheduled for repair.
“However, it appears that the pothole has further deteriorated since that inspection and this could be due to a number of factors such as weather conditions.
“We have since undertaken a temporary repair on this pothole due to its escalated severity and reassessed any other potholes within this area.
“A permanent repair will now be undertaken at this location within the next 30 days.
“We would encourage members of the public to report potholes via the emergency contact number on our website.”
New research from Confused.com shows it is taking up to 18 months for some potholes to be repaired across the UK.
It also revealed that 23% of drivers have had their cars damaged because of a pothole.
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